TV Review: ‘Doom Patrol’ Season 4, Episode 11 — A Spark Of Life
by Frank Martin
This season of Doom Patrol has been pretty frustrating, especially in its second half. It hasn’t been all bad — and that’s partly the reason why it’s been so frustrating. The series has been great, but a show can only be so crazy for so long before it starts to become tired.
A lot of episodes this season suffer from that syndrome. Nevertheless, this season also shows slight glimpses of the brilliance it had in the past. The villain in the second half of the season is one such example. The musical episode is another. This week’s episode shows again that these characters still have a lot to give us, but it may be too-little-too-late as the series comes to a close.
After falling through a portal into the time stream, the Doom Patrol needs to find a way to regain their longevity. They access three portals that take them to three different spots in time. Cliff (Brendan Fraser) heads to the far past, when Niles (Timothy Dalton) is still able to walk. Rouge (Michelle Gomez) heads to the place she worked before, where she unsuccessfully tries to regain longevity from Niles. Jane (Diane Guerrero) meets Niles in the relative past, and she actually comes to terms with her personae, becoming a whole new individual called the Kaleidoscope. After failing in their missions, the Doom Patrol finds a way out of the time stream and look to confront Immortus for good.
The second half of the season was retreading a lot of the character drama from the past. As the characters grew older, it seemed as if they didn’t really have a direction or purpose. But in this episode, they had an objective. Each of them tried to accomplish the mission, and in doing so, learned something about themselves. After the show struggled to expand on their characterization for so long, it was refreshing to see them confront Niles in completely different ways via crazy time travel antics. As the season and the show comes to a close, it was nice to see this breath of fresh air to remind audiences why they loved Doom Patrol in the first place.
Doom Patrol streams Thursdays on Max.
